A sense of missing out appears to pervade Britain’s post-Brexit generation, never truly being able to enjoy free movement, permit-free work, visaless study, and EU funding mechanisms that their older millennial counterparts did. However, this could all change because of an unexpected piece of domestic news in the UK.
Immigration is a huge topic within British politics, but while hysteria often colours policy-making on the topic, it was revealed recently that, due to a crackdown on student visas, net migration actually dropped by 44,000 people.
This has led some experts to argue that the UK government could establish a Youth Mobility Scheme, which would see a mutual exchange of people under the age of 30 with the EU, with “essentially zero” impact on the UK’s overall migration numbers if it were capped at 44,000.
It is not entirely concrete what the plan would look like, but it could be modelled on a pre-existing Youth Mobility Scheme that exists for young people from places like New Zealand, Japan, and Australia.
This would mean a two-year reciprocal scheme, plus an optional third, open to 18–30-year-olds and not tied to a specific purpose, although some reports state that the EU is proposing a four-year duration. This would allow young Brits to live and work in Paris, Amsterdam or Berlin and in exchange, EU nationals could do the same in Cardiff, Belfast or Edinburgh. Polling commissioned for the report shows 72% of the public supports the idea.
The scheme would see the reestablishment of ties between individuals in the UK and the EU that have been severed over the past decade and could have a positive knock-on effect for EU-UK relations.
A UK government spokesperson said: “We are working together with the EU to create a balanced youth experience scheme which will create new opportunities for young people to live, work, study and travel.
“As agreed with the EU in May, any final scheme must be time-limited and capped. We will not give a running commentary on ongoing talks.”
Although news of the scheme has been received as overwhelmingly positive, the EU’s slow deliberations on how it might work have frustrated some UK commentators.
David Henig, a trade expert, told the Guardian: “I think the immediate optimism of a successful summit has now given way to the usual difficulties of negotiations, which are being exacerbated by Brussels being heavily focused on other issues, not least with regard to the US and China.”
It remains to be seen if the scheme ever materialises and what its final iteration will look like, but support for it shows a positive movement on both sides of the English Channel.
